PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

MTV abortion special: Happy for the kill

Exclusive: Jill Stanek points out why feminists shouldn't be so happy about program

Jill Stanek fought to stop "live-birth abortion" after witnessing one as a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. In 2002, President Bush asked Jill to attend his signing of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. In January 2003, World Magazine named Jill one of the 30 most prominent pro-life leaders of the past 30 years. To learn more, visit Jill's blog, Pro-life Pulse.

On Dec. 28, MTV aired the abortion special, “No Easy Decision,” apparently yielding to pressure from abortion ideologues upset that its two highly rated shows on unplanned pregnancies, “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom,” are both life-affirming.

Just finishing its third season, “16 and Pregnant” is a reality show that follows a different group of 16-year-olds each year as they navigate the numerous travails of teenage pregnancy. To date all have decided to carry their babies to term, most going on to raise their babies themselves, with one each season deciding to place her baby for adoption.

“Teen Mom” has just completed its second season following some of the aforementioned teens either raising their babies or moving on without them. “Teen Mom 2″ has just been announced.

Abortion is infrequently mentioned but has always been rejected, although neither show glamorizes teen pregnancy and motherhood in the least.

Now we get to “No Easy Decision,” which follows one of the teen moms from “16 and Pregnant.” Markai finds out eight months after having her daughter that she is pregnant again and decides this time to abort. If you haven’t watched the special, you can do so on MTV’s website.

MTV aired “No Easy Decision” as a half-hour special sans commercials on a Tuesday night at 11:30 p.m., which says how much MTV really wanted to do this.

Announcing the special, Entertainment Weekly wrote, “MTV sources say the documentary will tackle all sides of the issue. …”

So I expected the pro-life position to be fairly represented alongside the pro-abortion position – by educating on the documented harm of abortion to women, describing fetal development at the age of the baby being aborted and offering a counseling session at a pregnancy care center as well as an abortion clinic. I was resigned that Markai would move ahead with her abortion but thought her decision would be fully informed.

None of this came to pass. As it turns out, MTV partnered with the pro-abortion group Exhale to produce the special and linked on its website only to pro-abortion groups like The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Planned Parenthood. Of all the condoms in the world, the show’s moderator, Dr. Drew Pinsky (a pro-abortion sex therapist), distributed condoms marketed by Planned Parenthood. Interesting.

But this member of the latter camp is relieved, delighted – and still amazed – to report that MTV got it right. Seriously, they nailed it. And by “nailed it,” I don’t mean they just did a great PSA for abortion. I mean they told the many-sided truth: that abortion is safe and common, that abortion has been made difficult to get, and, most importantly, that abortion is a complex decision made by complex human beings. (That thump you heard around 11:35 p.m. EST was the sound of 100 feminist media critics falling off our collective couches.)

Well, I’ve watched “No Easy Decision” four times now only to increasingly wonder what there was for the other side to crow about.

Aside from Dr. Drew’s advocacy of contraception and abortion and the obviously prepped abortion clinic counselor on the phone, the reality of abortion decision-making and its aftermath came painfully through. That was:

Abortion is a decision made in desperation. As Markai said, though tears, “I know we need to because we ain’t got no other way.” Abortion is the only so-called “right” Americans do not herald; rather, they prefer to avoid it. As Markai also said, again through tears, “I wouldn’t choose abortion as the first option for anybody. It’s the toughest decision ever to make in your life.” Markai’s support system clearly failed her, most critically her boyfriend – the baby’s father – who steadfastly pushed abortion. Had Markai received support from James, her mother or even the friend whose counsel she sought, she would not have aborted. As she also said, “I’m in love with this baby already and this baby’s not doing nothing but making me sick.” This is not something a focused abortion-minded mother says.

The 50-year free love experiment/wanton contraceptive mentality is a failure. The three post-abortive mothers interviewed demonstrated that the contraception/abortion industry fails to adequately teach about contraception, and young teens are too immature and irresponsible to handle it properly anyway. As even Dr. Drew pointed out, one in four teen moms experience a repeat pregnancy. This is not the failure of abstinence education, to be sure. It is the failure of the comprehensive sex-ed mentality.

â€¨The abortion industry lies about fetal development, utterly failing to provide informed consent. Markai’s abortion counselor told her, “Don’t think of it as 10 fingers and 10 toes and a forehead and all that, because if you think of it like that you’ll get depressed. Think of it as what it is, a little ball of cells.” This was utterly false information. At six weeks gestation, the age of Markai’s baby when she killed him or her, the heart has already been beating for three weeks, and its output is already 20 percent that of an adult’s. The baby has detectable brain waves. Only a half inch long, her little arms and legs are developing, and 40 sets of muscles are beginning to move.

Abortion leaves an aftermath. Another of the post-abortive mothers interviewed, Katie, said – through tears – that while she “didn’t have a lot of regret or negative feelings” when she aborted, she to this day has trouble being around her 2-year-old nephew who was born at the same time she aborted. Markai had somewhat of a meltdown when boyfriend James called their aborted baby a “thing.”

This is the show that “thrilled” abortion proponents, as the pro-abort blog Jezebel exclaimed?

It seems to me the pro-abort crowd is by this time in the history of legalized abortion merely happy with crumbs, for the simple display of abortion, even with all its catastrophic negatives.